"Low-fat" baking

Over the summer, an extra 3 kilos crept onto the bathroom scales. The time has come to do something about these, before they start getting too settled in and claiming squatters’ rights.

I like a little sweet hit during the day, so I was looking for something low-ish fat that would hit the spot and found these.

Chocolate and cranberry skinny muffins

250g self-raising flour

1 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

85g brown sugar

85g dried cranberries

25g dark chocolate, chopped

125g tub low-fat Greek yogurt

125ml skimmed milk

3 tbsp of melted butter (the original recipe uses 3 tbsp sunflower oil, but I find that this makes the buns rubbery)

1 egg, lightly beaten

Skinny chocolate and cranberry muffin

Heat oven to 180° Celsius. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl. Stir in the sugar and cranberries. I then melted the chocolate and the butter together in the microwave as I thought that this might lesson the chances of the chocolate curdling.

In a jug, stir the yogurt, milk and the egg together. I then mixed the buttery chocolate mixture through this. Make a well in centre of the dry ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and mix to combine. Spoon the mix into the muffin cases and bake for 15-20 mins until risen and firm to the touch.

I’m not sure if these still classify as being low in fat, but they were tasty. For more of a chocolaty hit, substitute some of the flour with some more cocoa. Of the two muffins I baked, these were the most flavoursome and the most satisfying.

Hairy dieters skinny lemon muffins

200g self-raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

75g golden caster sugar

100g blueberries

the juice of one lemon

2 large eggs

150ml low-fat Greek yogurt

4 tbsp semi-skimmed milk

50g of butter, melted (the original recipe has 50ml sunflower oil)

Skinny lemon muffin mixture

Heat your oven to 200°Celsius and line your muffin tray with bun cases.

Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl and stir in the sugar and blueberries. Make a well in the centre.

In a jug, beat the eggs, and add the yogurt, milk and melted butter with the lemon juice until well combined. Stir into the flour mixture with a large metal spoon until very lightly mixed.

Fill the bun cases with the batter and bake in your oven for 16–18 minutes or until the cupcakes are well risen and golden brown. Transfer them to a wire rack and leave to cool.

You could put some icing on these, but I figured they were sweet enough.

They were not very lemony and the taste wasn’t amazing, but they are enough to get something sweet into your day, so they are useful. 

Salmon burgers

I saw these salmon burgers in a recent edition of Good Food magazine. They are incredibly good and quick.

Salmon burger

As not everyone chez nous likes horseradish, I left this out of the burgers and kept a jar on the table for everyone else to dose their bread as they liked.

500g salmon

the zest of a lemon

a little dill, dried or fresh

a little mayonnaise (you just need enough to glue the salmon together, so a dessert spoon/15ml)

bread for the burgers (I like pistolet - not too soft and not too crunchy) along with some more mayo, horseradish, and salad

Blitz the salmon, lemon, dill and mayo in a food processor or break the salmon into pieces and mix in a bowl until combined.

Shape the mixture into four burgers. Heat a large frying pan and cook the burgers until done – about four or five minutes on each side. I guess you could grill them too. Barbeque, I’m not so sure – if you’re feeling risky, chance one on the barbeque and see how it goes.

Make your burger up as you like it. I don’t think you need any advice there!

I got to thinking though that I was making a bit of work for myself by blitzing these in the food processor. I'm pretty certain that you could keep your salmon steaks whole, taking the skin off and popping these under the grill for a couple of minutes, then slathering them with the mayo mixed with some chopped dill and a little lemon juice and enveloping them in the bread of your choice. Also, grilling them reduces the trans fats (trans fat occur during heating, especially frying. It basically means that the fat cells split, which is not very good news for your heart). The good news is that wild (not farmed) salmon is full of stuff that is good for you, like omega-3 fats (that's the one that is good for you), vitamin D, selenium and vitamin B-12. Farmed stuff is also good for you, but has less omega-3 fat and more of the less good for you fat.